And I say almost, because there is still hope, slight as it is.
- Fillers. They could have stopped and taken breaks after an arc ends, but I guess milking this cash cow to death was worth the years of fillers we’ve had. Unfortunately fillers are a problem that have plagued shonen animes for a long time. I keep wondering whether the TV ratings for these go down at all during fillers, or do Japanese people continue to stupidly watch the show even though it’s comatose inducing? Perhaps they are too influenced by Americans who keep on watching pigeonshit like Lost, Smallville, American Idol, etc.
- Lack of Vizards. These guys were introduced in episode 110 back in Jan ‘07. That was two years back! While we left most of the incredible characters of Soul Society when that arc ended, the Vizards brought something new to the table. A gang of bad boys and girls who don’t care about rules, and just want to have fun kick some ass. Then the lame Hueco Mundo arc began and we lost these guys altogether. What happened to them?
- Lack of fathers and Urahara. From the shocking revelation of Ichigo and Ishida’s fathers being so powerful to Urahara back in the early days; these people seem ripe for some screentime. Both Ichigo and Ishida’s fathers and Urahara not only seem to be of the same age but also seem to have some history with each other. Not to mention that they seem to be stronger than the Gotei 13 captains and thus kick supreme ass. In retrospect, these 3 should have ‘come to the rescue’ in Hueco Mundo instead of the Captains. Their apperance becomes especially redundant since all the Captains will eventually fight Aizen and co. again in the fake Karakura town anyways.
- The manga. Kubo Tite decides to give us a big ass flashback in the middle of the Hueco Mundo arc. Now I haven’t read it myself but from what MJ tells me, the flashback fleshes out the back story of Urahara, Yoruichi and the Vizards; but why wait until now? I’m sure KT had their back stories figured out long time back, so why give it to us now, smack in the middle of an existing arc? Or better yet, why not give us this (seemingly rich) backstory instead of the whole weaksauce Hueco Mundo arc?
- Zaraki Rickrolled us with ‘Kendo’ instead of unleashing his Shikai against Nnoitra. It’s like waiting on Christmas eve of ‘01 expecting a PS2 and then you tear up the packaging to see a Dreamcast. I wasn’t expecting his Bankai as that, if it ever happens, will be reserved for the most kick ass reveal in Bleach. Maybe Zaraki vs Aizen? We can only dream…
From what I’ve heard of the current ongoings in the manga, the story is back on track with the Gotei 13 (read 6) captains vs Aizen and co. The manga is currently headed for a trainwreck, the bad kind. I can only hope that due to something even more convoluted than Karakura town being teleported to Rukongai, the remaining Captains are defeated and that the Vizards, the two fathers and Urahara come to save the fucking day. And for some reason or the other, Zaraki shows his Bankai. And the rest of the Captains die, namely Yamamoto (1st), Unohana (4th) and Ukitake (13th). Aditionally killing off Aizen, Hinamori and Tousen wouldn’t be such a bad idea either. Also, throw in either Rukia or Orihime in for good measure (yea I went there). The rest can live happily ever after and the manga come to an end.
One can certainly hope that Bleach will someday return to it’s former glory of kicking ass in so much style, that all other shonen mangas burn with hate.
Too bad it’s never gonna happen.
As for the fillers, keep in mind that the anime (and the manga, but especially the anime) is made for 10-14 yo. boys. As in, children with very short attention span. Take the show off the air for a month and by the time it’s back the audience will have already latched onto something else. This is why all anime like Bleach have fillers, simply to keep the show on air, whatever it takes, as long as it’s popular enough. If ratings fall, the shows go the way of Inuyasha and D.Gray-man. (And of course hiatuses would mean obvious scheduling problems for TV stations, studios and mangaka alike. “Kubo-san, please write the story in a way that it has enough material for another 52 episodes!”)
Big fat YES to the lack of vizards, Urahara and the daddies. They should’ve gone to bail Ichigo and Co. out. I’m sick and tired of shinigami (at least those who are not called Kurosaki, Urahara or Yoruichi).
Ahmen! They revealed the dad’s LONG ago as being way badder than most, and why would you not tell your son you’re a Captain-class Soul Reaper(?!) or that your Quincy son is friends with an old friends son, and yeah, the non-shikai for Kenpachi was a HUGE let down.
What about Urahara coming to save the day at the head of the Visords when they came to save the day?! They ARE technically why he got kicked out and made the Hogyoku in the first place! I wana know what his Shikai can do, and why his Bankai is”not for training”. Arg!!
Yeah, filler sucks. The bount thing was ok, but there was way to much drama and it went on and on. The whole Kon wannabes who test Ichigo and Co. was just plain stupid!
Fillers do happen.. and I am actually on hiatus once again on Bleach myself, because of said filters… but my issue is that Bleach has waaaayyyy too many individual characters.. of course characters like the Vizards aren’t going to get screen time.. unless those ED songs are teasers?
Nice, so many things I agree with here.
You might wanna check this out if you havnt seen it yet, very amusing, great piece of creative writing, on the same issue:
http://oihayaku.com/wrapping-up-the-bleach-manga-in-2-chapters
I’ve only read the first volume of Bleach (I’ll try anything… once)
But I’m trying to cut down on my shonen.
Fillers are somethibg that I actually something I like.
Forget that they’re not advancing the story.
They add extra lore and depth to a story, a manga has to be pretty plot-oriented.
not T.V. Like Looney Tunes, when the coyote dies every episode.
And comes back.
(re-reads comment and realizes it makes no sense.)
@Kuromitsu ~ I would still argue that pulling off shows instead of fillers for 6 months to a year is not good. Lets consider the fact that when shows like FMA, Dragon Ball or Haruhi (please God!) come back, the hype is so insane that TV ratings are bound to go through the roof! A little bit of marketing can do wonders to remind the forgetful shonens that this anime kicked ass and the new season will make you squeal with excitement. I guess the new FMA remake will tell us whether I’m right or wrong.
@ miz ~ I don’t know about the ED, but the OP sure looks like a teaser. Actually the new OP is as good as D-technolife, Rolling Star or dare I say, Asterisk! Anyways, too many characters confused me when the Soul Society arc began but I got used to the as they were individually introduced to us on drip feed. KT dropped the ball when he introduced the barrage of Arrancar just after introducing the Vizards to us!
@ Loz ~ lololol nice one! Too bad Hinamori didn’t get killed amidst all the chaos :p
@ Colby ~ I remember when Bleach used to have like 1 ep fillers with Don Kanonji. That dood was actually funny the first few times. By his 3rd appearance I wanted to kill him and stab KT’s throat. And Loony Tunes can go on fillers or normal, there’s never a plot that extends beyond the one episode lol. Ah, those were simpler days when ‘What’s up doc’ used to be fun and seeing the Coyote die (?) brought my down actually ROFL’ing!
TH why have you stopped reviewing heroes?
Coz it’s getting really bad now. And I’d rather review something good. There’s only so many ways I can insult that program.
ok dude… LOST is NOT pigeonshit… far frm it….
HEROES is worse thn pigeonshit but not LOST…
yes… season 2 and 3 were kinda bad but not nearly as bad as heroes….
season 4 was AWESOME and season 5 is going great (so far.. fingers crossed)
Heroes is chickenshit right now, which is why we aren’t covering it for the time being. However, Lost has lost (no pun intended) it’s appeal before I even started watching it. If you’re in the same place for 4 years, you aren’t ‘lost’, you’re ‘there’! And all this time travel BS is even more pathetic than Battlestar’s final Cylon reveal :p
i must admit… i lol’d at the “you’re ‘there’!”….
i guess to each his/her own….
yeh the final cylon reveal was pretty anti-climatic… i mean the show is ending… arent they supposed to go all out…??
ur stupid zaraki doesent even know his zompoctos name and he probaly couldent even reach bonkai if he did
Zompocto???? and he’s stupid??? c’mon guy, get off your soapbox, and move to the back of the room before you make yourself look worse. Anyway, it’s just a hope and dream of Kenpachi fans
but yeah, I’ve come to realize that he “Said” he didn’t know its name but I’m hoping he does and that he was A liar! 
LOL! that kenpachi image was HILARIOUS!
i agree in SOOOO many ways.BUT lost is soooo pigeonshit .the title is right though ,i couldnt follow any of it XD
I have to agree with that one dude about one thing. Zaraki doesn’t know his Zanpakuto’s name. If he were lying about it, i dont think he would have been thinking it to himself like i believe i recall him doing. Although i suppose i could be mistaken. I do however wish you would find out that stupid things name. I am a huge Zaraki fan, but i think the fact that he doesnt know its name is just part of his character. i doubt if he will every find it out. It just represents the immense amount of reiatsu and skill that he possesses. But then again, part of his character is an amazing will to become stronger. So maybe he will find out its name :]
I know this is way after the fact, but perusing this little blog here, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of sticking up for Zaraki. He can’t reach shikai let alone bankai because he doesn’t know his Zanpakuto’s name, this is revealed early on in the series when he first fought with Ichigo. I think you should be ashamed of yourself for missing this obvious and important aspect of Zaraki’s background cannon. I think it might be interesting if they dedicated a little time to him trying to learn his Zanpakuto’s name, however it would truly go against his character since typically it would increase his fighting power and he already feels the need to hold back against the average enemy anyway. Piss and moan all you like about this, but to change it would be a cop out to Zaraki and undoubtedly cause a war amongst Bleach purists.
/Also, Smallville isn’t that bad, mmmm Lois Laaane
As far as Zaraki goes, I am a huge fan. A couple things; one, Zaraki doesn’t have a low level shinigami Zampaktou– I’m not addressing a particular previous post, but setting up for my argument to come. It’s impossible for him to have a low level shinigami Zampaktou because those are non unique and can easily shatter, and have non unique hilts. THe fact that Zaraki keeps the same Zampaktou is a sign of that. Second, I believe if i remember correctly that Both Ichigo and Renji talk to their Zampaktou’s spirits after they had broken to help them heal… Therefore, here is what i’m arguing: after Zaraki and Ichigo fought, did not Zaraki’s Zampaktou break? And since his sword is unique wouldn’t he have to at least have some understanding of his Zampaktou to heal it. I’ve heard about Zampaktou’s able to heal due to the wielders reiatsu, but i say BS to that because a Zampaktou is connected to the wielder’s soul, and usually if the fight comes to damaging the wielder aren’t they broken in mind and spirt? So wouldn’t their reiatsu be insufficient? ON TOP OF THAT, if the wielder is not connected spiritually to their sword, how can they use their riatsu to heal it? Don’t you have to have a connection? Now, i may be a little far fetched there, but here’s the kicker–after the Ichigo fight, Zaraki laid next to his broken Zampaktou and spoke to it. Kubo [being the asshole he is.. and i mean that in the nicest way] cut scene right before the answer. Next thing you know, Zaraki is back and well with what? OH! the same exact Zampaktou. SO i’m banking on him knowing his Zampaktou’s name, but choses not to use “Shikai” agains Noitra because Zaraki himself loves to feel pain and only uses enough strength to beat the enemy at hand… otherwise he would have defeated Ichigo way back. Knowing the swords name doesn’t only give you shikai and access to bankai, but Zengetsu said if you’re in unison with your Zampaktou their power resonates with the wielder adding theirs to the weilders.[is the same thing with Hollowfication, if you're out of whack with your hollow or Zampaktou you're not reaching your full potential of power... I.e. ichigo vs. grimjaw] I think that’s why Zaraki’s kendo was powerful enough to stop Noitra. And that’s why he was stronger than Ichigo this time around. Now whether or not I’m right or not, will be up to Kubo in these up coming chapters, but I hope i am, because Bleach has become a some what disaster and reason being, is not being clear on the previously mentioned.
Marc.
Ok….first of all, Zaraki’s Zampaktou is already in it’s shikai form because if you paid attention to his fight with Ichigo he says just that. He says that his spiritual pressure is so huge that he can’t completely seal it and his sword is already in it’s released form. Go back and check if you don’t believe me. Ichigo and Youroichi discuss it when she starts Ichigo’s bankai training.
I’ll give you that. Ok, that solves the Shikai. But the rest of my theory/question still stands. In those same chapters, Ichigo’s sword is repaired again, because he talks with Zengetsu. All i’m saying is Zaraki could possibly know Bankai, because he might now know his swords name due to when Ichigo beats him and his sword breaks–its repaired later on. And since he’s so powerful using kendo is just enough to defeat Noitra because in those same Chapters you cited, Zaraki says basically he gives the enemy advantages to beat him, including only using what’s barely necessary to win. (suppression of power.)
Marc